Tag Archives: Blogging

Everywhere Once: Around the World

(c) Simon Howden

Occasionally someone asks if we’re keeping a journal of our adventures. Naturally, I direct them here, thinking this blog is a pretty fulsome account of our travels. Every once in a while I’m floored when they respond “Yeah, but are you writing it down?”

I admit that there is something unique about the printed word. It is tangible and real. Words written on papyrus 2,000 years ago are still being read today. 2,000 years from now, what will become of this? Nothing much, I expect.

But in some ways, digital media is more real than its predecessors. Eloquent prose of flowing script carefully written in a journal and tucked safely in a nightstand is absolutely tangible, it may even be beautiful; but it is almost certainly unread.

The Buddhist in me wants to ponder whether a story written but unseen has actually been told. I think the answer is no. Does that make it unreal?

EverywhereOnce, meanwhile, has gone global. This week one of the fastest growing travel brands in Asia, Take Me to Travel, featured us and our 24 Hours in Custer State Park post. Overnight, they introduced us to 150,000 of their followers, halfway around the world.

Two decades ago only the most accomplished writers could even hope for that kind of exposure. Today, thanks to the intangible vapors of the digital world, it is simply a beginning.

Everywhere Once: Central America

Storm Over Rocky Mountains

A storm brews over the Rocky Mountains

We strive to make blog posts worthy of our audience. We expect them to be more than just diary entries of where we’ve been and what we’ve done. Instead, we try to craft stories that are as interesting in the telling as they are in the doing. Sometimes we succeed and other times we don’t. But the effort usually requires reflection; it often requires research; it always requires time.

Careful observers may have noticed that our writing trails our travels. In truth, the blog is about a month or so behind us. I don’t expect it will ever catch up. We simply need that time to make each entry a worthwhile read. Normally that hasn’t presented much of a problem, aside from some mild confusion about why there isn’t more Rocky Mountain snow at this time of year.

More recently, though, people who know that we’re about to embark on a two month backpacking trip through Central America have asked whether they’ll be able to follow our whereabouts on EverywhereOnce. The answer is no, not in real time, anyway. Like all of our posts, dispatches from Central America will be delayed by about a month or so.

Read More…

Back in the Saddle

“All work and no play . . . “ may seem like a strange proverb to open a EverywhereOnce post. It’s true that this blog is about play far more than it is about work. But the writing and photo editing needed to get these posts published requires no small amount of effort on my part; effort that is generally uncompensated. ‘Poor me’ – I know. But it is a self-imposed burden; one that I abruptly stopped carrying about a month back. Read More…

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